Newswise — New York, NY, October 15, 2012 – The Cancer Research Institute (CRI), a U.S. nonprofit organization established in 1953 to transform cancer patient care through the discovery and development of safe and effective immune system-based strategies to treat and eventually cure all cancers, today announced the election of Mitchell H. Gold, M.D., to its Board of Trustees. Dr. Gold is chairman, chief executive officer, and founder of Alpine Biosciences, a privately held, Seattle-based biotech company dedicated to developing the next generation of cancer immunotherapies. He is also a board member and former president and CEO of Dendreon Corporation, which under his leadership brought the therapeutic cancer vaccine Provenge® through late-stage development and to FDA approval in 2010 as the world’s first FDA-approved active cellular cancer immunotherapy.
“Mitchell Gold is passionately committed to advancing immune system-based cancer therapies, and brings significant leadership experience to CRI in the area of cancer immunotherapy development, particularly from the perspective of biotechs and industry,” said Andrew M. Paul, chair of the CRI Board of Trustees Nominating Committee. “His trailblazing work with successfully moving Provenge to FDA approval and beyond provided momentum to the field, which has made it more likely for other immune-based cancer treatments to reach patients in the near future.”
Dr. Gold was awarded CRI’s 2011 Oliver R. Grace Award for Distinguished Service in Advancing Cancer Research. This annual award recognizes the contributions of exceptionally dedicated individuals whose leadership has had significant impact on medical research, patient care, or public education.
“The Cancer Research Institute is the pre-eminent organization dedicated to advancing and accelerating the development of cancer immunotherapy,” said Dr. Gold. “Given my personal commitment to changing the way cancer is treated and the potential of immunotherapy to improve the lives of patients with cancer, I’m proud to be joining CRI’s Board of Trustees.”
Prior to joining Dendreon, Dr. Gold previously served as vice president of business development and vice president of sales and marketing for Data Critical Corporation, a company engaged in wireless transmission of critical healthcare data, now a division of GE Medical. Dr. Gold was the president, chief executive officer, and a co-founder of Elixis Corporation, a medical information systems company.
A Chicago native, Dr. Gold graduated from the University of Wisconsin and Rush University Medical School in Chicago and was a urology resident at the University of Washington. In addition to his board appointments at Dendreon and Cancer Research Institute, Dr. Gold is also a board member of Jennerex Biotherapeutics and the University of Washington/Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Prostate Cancer Institute.
View the complete list of the Cancer Research Institute Board of Trustees: http://cancerresearch.org/board.
About Cancer ImmunotherapyCancer immunotherapies are designed to boost the immune system’s ability to find and destroy cancer cells and control tumor growth. These immunotherapies—including immune-modulating monoclonal antibodies, therapeutic cancer vaccines, and other interventions to overcome tumor-induced immunosuppression or to potentiate the anti-tumor immune response—have the potential to be more targeted, more effective, and less toxic than today’s standard approaches to fighting this disease.
About the Cancer Research InstituteThe Cancer Research Institute (CRI), established in 1953, is the world’s only nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to transforming cancer patient care by advancing scientific efforts to develop new and effective immune system-based strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat, and eventually cure all cancers. Guided by a world-renowned Scientific Advisory Council that includes three Nobel laureates and 30 members of the National Academy of Sciences, CRI has invested more than $200 million in support of research conducted by immunologists and tumor immunologists at the world’s leading medical centers and universities, and has contributed to many of the key scientific advances that demonstrate the potential for immunotherapy to change the face of cancer treatment. Learn more at www.cancerresearch.org.
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